dotnet publish specific project with SolutionDir reference

Question

I'm trying to publish a specific project which is part of a solution. Many of the projects in the solution have settings which depend on the $(SolutionDir) value, but this is not available when the command line only points to the .csproj file instead of the .sln

Is there a way to inject a value to be used as $(SolutionDir) in this case?

Answer 1

short answer

yes it's possible with a property argument -property:SolutionDir

dotnet test Tests/Tests.csproj --logger trx --configuration Release -property:SolutionDir="C:\path_to_solution\"

note the \ at the end of the path. Will save you some time :)

note: for the azure devops the argument line looks like (in my scenario)

-property:SolutionDir=$(Build.SourcesDirectory)/'

long answer

I have had problem when running tests from the CLI - azure devops would throw exceptions that files do not exist for the project.. No such exception is thrown when working from VS2022. The project basically has following config:

  <ItemGroup>
    <Content Include="$(SolutionDir)init.sql" CopyToOutputDirectory="Always" LinkBase="\" />
  </ItemGroup>

so then if you just run the

dotnet test Tests/Tests.csproj --logger trx --configuration Release

error will pop-up

Error: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: Could not find file 'C:\path_to_solution\Tests\bin\Release\net7.0\init.sql'

see the solution in the short answer :)